1968 Washington Senators season

The 1968 Washington Senators season was the eighth in the expansion team's history, and it saw the Senators finish tenth and last in the ten-team American League with a record of 65 wins and 96 losses. The club also finished 20th and last in MLB attendance, with a total of 564,661 fans, a decrease of about 206,000 from 1967. Civil unrest in Washington, D.C., resulting from the April 4 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., caused a two-day postponement of the traditional Presidential opener, which had been scheduled for D.C. Stadium on April 8.
The Senators' struggles on the field and at the turnstiles helped drive owner James H. Lemon to put the team on the market. On December 3, 1968, it was announced that Minneapolis businessman and politician Bob Short had outbid entertainer Bob Hope to purchase the Washington franchise. Short had earlier owned a professional sports team when he purchased the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBA in 1957, moved them to Los Angeles in 1960, and sold the reborn Los Angeles Lakers to Jack Kent Cooke in 1964.
In a front-office housecleaning, Short ousted general manager George Selkirk and took responsibility for the club's baseball operations himself. He then made headlines by replacing 1968's first-year manager Jim Lemon with Baseball Hall of Fame hitter Ted Williams, whom he lured back into uniform to become the club's new pilot. Williams' signing was announced just prior to spring training on February 21, 1969.

Offseason

February 13, 1968: Tim Cullen, Buster Narum and Bob Priddy were traded by the Senators to the Chicago White Sox for Dennis Higgins, Steve Jones, and Ron Hansen.

Regular season

July 30, 1968, Ron Hansen of the Senators turned an unassisted triple play. He caught a line drive, touched second base and tagged the runner coming from first base.

Opening Day starters

Notable transactions

June 7, 1968: 1968 Major League Baseball draft
*Don Castle was drafted by the Senators in the 1st round.
*Jim Mason was drafted by the Senators in the 2nd round.
*Mike Cubbage was drafted by the Senators in the 6th round, but did not sign.
August 2, 1968: Ron Hansen was traded by the Senators to the Chicago White Sox for Tim Cullen.

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C		96	322	63	.196	4	25
1B		123	385	90	.234	13	33
2B	Bernie Allen	120	373	90	.241	6	40
SS		86	275	51	.185	8	28
3B	Ken McMullen	151	557	138	.248	20	62
LF		158	598	164	.274	44	106
CF	Del Unser	156	635	146	.230	1	30
RF	Ed Stroud	105	306	73	.239	4	23

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Cap Peterson	94	226	46	.204	3	18
Ed Brinkman	77	193	36	.187	0	6
	62	171	30	.175	0	7
	59	165	32	.194	1	10
Brant Alyea	53	150	40	.267	6	23
Hank Allen	68	128	28	.219	1	9
Sam Bowens	57	115	22	.191	4	7
	47	114	31	.272	1	16
Billy Bryan	40	108	22	.204	3	8
	37	101	24	.238	3	7
Gary Holman	75	85	25	.294	0	7
Dick Billings	12	33	6	.182	1	3
Gene Martin	9	11	4	.364	1	1

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	33	223.0	12	16	3.27	139
Camilo Pascual	31	201.0	13	12	2.69	111
Jim Hannan	25	140.1	10	6	3.01	75
	27	127.1	7	13	4.66	81
Gerry Schoen	1	3.2	0	1	7.36	1

Other pitchers